Robert Young

Acting · 1.4 popularity

Age

119

Movies

113

Born: February 22, 1907 – July 21, 1998
From: Chicago, Illinois, USA

Biography

Robert George Young (February 22, 1907 – July 21, 1998) was an American television, film, and radio actor, best known for his leading roles as Jim Anderson, the father of Father Knows Best (NBC and then CBS) and as physician Marcus Welby in Marcus Welby, M.D. (ABC). Young appeared in over 100 films between 1931 and 1952. After appearing on stage, Young was signed with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and, in spite of having a "tier B" status, he co-starred with some of the studio's most illustrious actresses, such as Katharine Hepburn, Margaret Sullavan, Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, Helen Hayes, Luise Rainer, Hedy Lamarr, and Helen Twelvetrees. Yet, most of his assignments consisted of B movies, also known as "programmers," which required two to three weeks of shooting (considered very brief shooting periods at the time). Actors who were relegated to such a hectic schedule appeared, as Young did, in some six to eight movies per year. As an MGM contract player, Young was resigned to the fate of most of his colleagues—to accept any film assigned to him or risk being placed on suspension—and many actors on suspension were prohibited from earning a salary from any endeavor at all (even those unrelated to the film industry). In 1936, MGM summarily loaned Young to Gaumont British for two films; the first was directed by Alfred Hitchcock with the other co-starring Jessie Matthews. While there he surmised that his employers intended to terminate his contract, but he was mistaken. He unexpectedly received one of his most rewarding roles late in his MGM career, in H.M. Pulham, Esq., featuring one of Hedy Lamarr's most effective performances. He once remarked that he was assigned only those roles which Robert Montgomery and other A-list actors had rejected. After his contract ended at MGM, Young starred in light comedies as well as in trenchant dramas for studios such as 20th Century Fox, United Artists, and RKO Radio Pictures. From 1943, Young assayed more challenging roles in films like Claudia, The Enchanted Cottage, They Won't Believe Me, The Second Woman, and Crossfire. His portrayal of unsympathetic characters in several of these later films—which was seldom the case in his MGM pictures—was applauded by numerous reviewers. Young's career began an incremental and imperceptible decline, despite a propitious beginning as a freelance actor without the nurturing of a major studio. He continued starring as a leading man in the late 1940s and early 1950s, but only in mediocre films, then he subsequently disappeared from the silver screen - only to reappear several years later on a much smaller one. Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Young (actor), licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia

Works

113 films

That's Entertainment!

19747.4

That's Entertainment! III

19947.0

Western Union

19416.0

Carolina

19346.7

The Father Knows Best Reunion

19775.7

That's Entertainment, Part II

19767.0

The Mortal Storm

19407.3

Crossfire

19476.7

The Emperor's Candlesticks

19374.9

Secret of the Incas

19545.9

Secret Agent

19366.1

Northwest Passage

19406.6

The House of Rothschild

19346.2

The Toy Wife

19385.0

Goodbye, My Fancy

19516.4

Honolulu

19396.5

Hell Below

19336.0

Twenty Years After

19448.0

The Romance of Celluloid

19377.0

Claudia and David

19467.5

They Won't Believe Me

19476.5

Sweet Rosie O'Grady

19436.5

Stowaway

19366.7

The Half-Breed

19527.0

Hollywood: Style Center of the World

19405.8

Lady Luck

19465.6

The Wet Parade

19326.2

Slightly Dangerous

19436.0

The Enchanted Cottage

19457.4

Navy Blue and Gold

19375.8

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: 50 Years of Magic

19908.3

Sitting Pretty

19487.1

The Canterville Ghost

19446.9

The Return of Marcus Welby, M.D.

19849.0

The Second Woman

19505.6

I Met Him in Paris

19376.1

Lady Be Good

19415.5

Relentless

19486.4

My Darling Daughters' Anniversary

19737.5

Three Comrades

19387.3

Sporting Blood

19404.2

Hollywood Goes to Town

19387.0

Dr. Kildare's Crisis

19406.7

Strange Interlude

19325.6

Adventure in Baltimore

19495.3

Whom the Gods Destroy

19346.0

The Sin of Madelon Claudet

19315.9

H.M. Pulham, Esq.

19417.1

The Shining Hour

19386.7

Myrna Loy: So Nice to Come Home To

19908.5

Tugboat Annie

19337.3

Hollywood’s Children

19829.0

Spitfire

19345.3

Mercy or Murder?

198710.0

Hollywood Party

19345.7

Florian

19404.5

The Trial of Mary Dugan

19416.5

West Point of the Air

19357.0

Dangerous Number

19374.9

A Conspiracy of Love

19878.0

Today We Live

19336.3

Married Bachelor

19416.4

Hollywood Hobbies

19395.6

Cairo

19426.3

Joe Smith, American

19426.5

Vagabond Lady

19357.2

The Bride Wore Red

19376.8

And Baby Makes Three

19495.1

That Forsyte Woman

19496.0

Death on the Diamond

19347.3

Red Salute

19356.0

The Bride Walks Out

19365.4

The Black Camel

19316.1

Bride for Sale

19497.0

Calm Yourself

19356.0

Lazy River

19347.0

Bridal Suite

19395.4

Remember Last Night?

19355.5

All My Darling Daughters

19727.5

Journey for Margaret

19426.7

The Guilty Generation

19316.2

Rich Man, Poor Girl

19386.1

The Right To Romance

19334.9

A New Romance of Celluloid: The Miracle of Sound

19406.8

Those Endearing Young Charms

19459.0

The Searching Wind

19468.0

The Bride Comes Home

19355.1

Saturday's Millions

19337.0

Miracles for Sale

19396.5

Sworn Enemy

19365.8

New Morals for Old

19324.5

The Band Plays On

19348.3

The Big Moment

1954

Highball Highway

19634.5

Paris Interlude

19344.0

Josette

19387.2

The Kid from Spain

19326.6

Father Knows Best: Home for Christmas

19777.3

Married Before Breakfast

19377.0

Maisie

19394.8

Men Must Fight

19336.2

Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Holiday Affair

19889.0

Marcus Welby, M.D.: A Matter of Humanities

196910.0

Unashamed

19327.3

It's Love Again

19366.5

Calling Hubby's Bluff

192910.0

Claudia

19437.5

The Longest Night

19366.3

The Campus Vamp

19286.3

Hell Divers

19326.7

Paradise for Three

19387.4

Northward, Ho!

19406.7

The Three Wise Guys

19369.0